The Rhetoric of cohesion: allusions to Homeric heroes in Tyrtaeus’ poetry.

Abstract:

Tyrtaeus, a Spartan poet of the early Archaic period, composed his martial
exhortations in order to address growing tensions between elites and non-elites of preclassical,
and thus pre-militaristic, Sparta during the Second Messenian War. His poetry
is filled with allusions to Homeric heroes and heroic concepts that interact with archaic
institutions and thought. This thesis seeks to examine those interactions and to discern
how Tyrtaeus uses the heroes Hector, Odysseus, and Achilles in his exhortations to
encourage men to stand and fight and not to retreat from battle. This study also uses
modern theories of cohesion in order to provide a framework for Tyrtaeus’ appeals to
social ties among the soldiers and for his models of reciprocal relations between the πόλις
and the soldiers, both of which he uses to overcome the tension between the elites and
non-elites and create a single, cohesive group.